"We saw Israel's example and we don't want to take any risk," the official said. "Despite Israel being such a technologically advanced country, the mission failed. We want the mission to be a success."

But as some Indian media outlets have noted, there's likely more to this story than jitters over Beresheet. Chandrayaan-2 has faced several technical problems in preparation for launch. It was originally scheduled to fly in 2018, until a review board said the mission was too risky, prompting last-minute design changes and pushing the launch to 2019. The changes also increased Chandrayaan-2's mass, requiring the launch vehicle be upgraded to India's more-powerful GSLV Mark III rocket. Then, a configuration problem during drop tests of a Chandrayaan-2 engineering model damaged 2 of the lander's legs.

A July launch would result in a landing after a lunar eclipse on the 16th and 17th. Since both the lander and rover are solar-powered, and only expected to survive for one lunar daytime (14 Earth days), ISRO would likely want to avoid dealing with any eclipses during the primary mission.